9 Avengers, 9 Hours, 9 Doors
by WishUponADragon
Summary: Basically, the Avengers, Fury, Loki, and Akane (June's real name) have to play the Nonary Games. Sounds fun, right? Told mostly from Akane's POV, and will make no sense whatsoever if you didn't play the game. Also, major spoilers for the game. This is my first fan fic, so please review! T because duh, it's the Nonary Games. *Complete*
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: As this is a fan fiction, I do not own anything in the story, like the Avengers, the 999 game, Maroon 5 songs, and Advil.

Akane woke with a groan to the sound of running water and the sight of a far-too-familiar cabin. Cabin, in this case, referring to to a bedroom on a boat, and this one was rapidly filling with water from the broken porthole. On realizing exactly where she was, her first instinct was to be extremely irritated. Her second followed almost immediately, and that was to sit straight up, banging her head against the ceiling as she did so.

_Bunk beds, you'd think I would have remembered this time around. _She swung herself over the side and landed with a small splash. The water was up to her ankles, but Akane didn't let it phase her. She calmly surveyed her surroundings, finding two closets, a sink, a stove with a kettle on top of it, two bunk beds, a blue briefcase on the bed below the one she had woken up on, and of course, the large metal door with a red number sloppily spray-painted on it.

The number was a 5, and Akane didn't have to look to know that it matched the 5 on the large red bracelet that encircled her left wrist. She splashed over to the closet nearest the sink and yanked it open moodily. She pulled the briefcase she found on the shelf out and set it down by the blue one. They were identical aside from the fact that the new one was red.

She then went to the stove and picked the kettle up. She flipped it over, spilling the contents into her outstretched hand. It was a blue key, which Akane tossed contemptuously onto the bed beside the cases. In the second closet taped to a mirror she found its red twin. She didn't bother to stare at her reflection. Vanity would not open the door for her.

The keys fit their corresponding cases, and Akane turned them, allowing her to enter the 4 digit codes. She supposed she could have found the pieces of paper that would tell her which numbers to enter, and used the numerical key on the back of the framed picture of the Titanic perched on the sink, but it wasn't really necessary. She knew the codes by heart, and soon the two cases lay open before her.

She tossed aside the papers telling her about digital roots and how to open the door, and picked up the numbered cards. They resembled credit cards, and Akane knew just what to do with them. It took a moment of calculation to determine that she needed the 1, the 6, and the 7 to make a digital root of 5, then she dropped the remaining cards in the now shin-deep water.

She slushed through it to stand before the door. As always, a strange device sat to the right of the door. It had a screen, a small lever, and a place to swipe the cards. Akane did so, and made no effort to keep the cards after she had swiped them and watched the three asterisks appear on the screen. It wasn't like they'd work anywhere else. She pulled the lever, and waited while the door clicked open and the water rushed out, pulling at her legs.

She went with the tide, and found herself in a long, and quite familiar, hallway spotted with eight more doors just like hers lining the sides. The hallway dead ended to the right, and so Akane went to the left. Up a flight of stairs, and she found herself in the ballroom. The grand ballroom in building Q was beautiful, gold and had been polished until it shone, including the marble staircase leading to the upper levels. It was truly a sight to behold, as she had discovered on a past visit to the exact replica of the Gigantic that had been built in the middle of the Nevada desert. The sister ship of the Titanic had suffered a similar fate as its more famous twin, and had nearly taken her with it. Akane felt her heart rate increase when she saw the two doors with the large red numbers. If there had been any doubt in her mind that she was in the third ever Nonary Games, it was gone.

This was the same building she had been in a year before, during the second Nonary Games. She and the other 8 that had been with her nearly died, and she was the only one who knew just how close a call they had. _But what am I doing here? There shouldn't be any more Nonary Games. Their purpose is over. Well, perhaps I'll learn more when the other eight get out._

She sat on the giant stairwell and gazed at the two numbered doors across from her, listening to the grandfather clock behind her tick away the seconds. She pulled out her iPod, pleased to find that Zero had left it, put her earphones in and started playing a song. Lucky Strike by Maroon 5 started playing from where she'd left off last. She cringed at the probability mentioned in the lyrics, and switched the song to Payphone. _One in a million indeed._

As it turned out, no sooner than Akane had settled onto the steps to wait did Tony Stark swipe the cards making a digital root of 2 and pull the lever, releasing him and the rising water into the hall. It didn't take a genius (although he was) to determine that he should head to the stairs, as the hallway ended abruptly in the other direction.

Walking slowly, Tony tried to process the strange turn of events this day had taken. After spending a wonderful day taking Pepper on a helicopter ride over Manhattan Island, Tony returned to the newly refurbished Stark Tower. Not a minute had passed since he entered the penthouse when an odd, gas-masked figure informed him that he would be participating in the Nonary Games, and rolled a device filled with knockout gas towards him.

He awoke in a cabin, with a large red bracelet displaying a 2 that wouldn't come off, not even with clever application of the screwdriver he found in the stove. So, he decided that the best course of action would be to play along with these Nonary Games... well, for now, at least.

A door clicked open behind Tony, and he turned to see a most unwelcome dark haired figure emerge. "So you received a visit from the... creature... as well?" Loki asked Tony, who glared suspiciously at him.

"It was a guy in a gas mask, and yes, I did. If I find out it was you..." Tony let the threat trail off.

Loki sighed exasperatedly. "And how exactly would I do that? Up until now I've been imprisoned on Asgard." He walked in the direction Tony had been going, and stopped at the top of the stairs, staring at the large ballroom. "It looks like home," he mused quietly.

"Looks like something out of the Titanic," Tony countered, although he knew the comment was not directed at him. He looked around a bit more and saw a young woman in her early twenties perched at the bottom of a very large, majestic staircase. He approached her, but she was listening to music and didn't acknowledge that either of them existed. She had long brown hair and pretty blue eyes. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and had a pair of earphones in.

Tony snapped his fingers in front of her, and she flicked her gaze towards him. Recognition lit her face, as it did when most people met Tony Stark, and she took the earphones out and tilted her head slightly to the side, as if to ask what he wanted. Tony smiled in his usual overconfident way when he saw he had her attention. "Hi, you wouldn't happen to know where we are?"

"The Nonary Games. Why are there only two of you? There should be nine total." She sounded concerned. "Are they still working out the puzzle?"

"Probably, but the water is only about knee high, so no worries. Do you think you can explain these Nonary Games just a little more?" Tony prompted, eager to know if this strange woman knew what they were there for.

"I'll tell you when the other six come. Well, three, now." She nodded towards the other stairway, where Nick Fury, Bruce Banner, and Natasha Romanoff stood, taking in the large, impressive room.

Widow was mostly checking random places on her all-black outfit, presumably for weapons that she wasn't finding, if her look of annoyance was any indicator. Dr. Banner was pulling on the red bracelet, and looked nervous.

Fury's eyes narrowed when he spotted Loki. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be locked up?" he asked accusatorially.

Loki rolled his eyes. "I was kidnapped, probably the same as you were. I have no desire to be here either, as pretty much everyone here, except maybe this person I don't even know, wants me dead, not to mention this bracelet seems to be preventing me from using magic, so yes, I am supposed to be 'locked up' as you put it, but this situation hardly appears to be an improvement," he snapped, although there was no mistaking an edge of fear in his voice.

The young woman completely ignored their conversation, and was looking very worried by this point. "Where are the other three? We need all nine!" She stood and brushed past the others to stand by the smaller set of stairs leading down to the hall. Only three doors were shut, and as they watched, one opened, letting out Steve Rodgers along with a tidal wave of water.

The hall was being filled with water from seven places now, and it was easy to see that the last two people would practically have to swim to the stairs. The Captain joined the others at the top, dripping wet, at approximately the same time that Clint Barton escaped from his cabin.

"Still one missing," Akane fretted. She did a quick head count. She knew all about the Avengers because the media had gone on about the incident at New York for months after it happened, although in a complete coincidence, that had been the day she and her brother staged the second Nonary Games. At any rate, she knew the last one missing was Thor.

Loki groaned, reaching the same conclusion. "Of course my brother wouldn't figure out that it's a puzzle." He glanced at Akane. "Will the water stop? We appear to be on a sinking ship,"

"Why are you asking me?" she practically growled.

This didn't phase Loki. "You seem to know a bit about these Nonary Games," he replied, determined to get a straight answer out of her.

Akane sighed. This had been coming, and she knew it. "It's my third time here," she admitted. "And, no, it will completely fill the hallway before it stops, but we aren't on a ship."

It may have been one one of his tricks, but Loki appeared genuinely concerned about his brother. "Can we open the door from the outside?" he asked Akane.

She shook her head. "My older brother, Aoi, tried the first time we were here. I couldn't even hear him through the door. You have to let him figure it out." Just then, the last door burst open, releasing a very wet and angry Thor. He made his way to where the others were waiting at the top of the stairs and tried to call his hammer, but it wouldn't come.

"What is the meaning of this?" he rumbled.

Akane stifled a laugh. "Yep, that's the normal reaction. Welcome, all, to the Nonary Games, probably the most terrifying nine hours of your life. Zero should come on the loudspeaker in a sec, so until then we might as well get acquainted." Seeing their confusion, she added, "Zero would be the guy with the gas mask. I'm Akane, and like I said earlier, I was in the other two Nonary Games. One was ten years ago, and the second was actually at the same time you all had that alien issue in New York."

"I take it you already know us, then?" Dr. Banner correctly assumed.

"Yes, if by know, you mean I own a TV that gets Channel 8 news." Akane grew impatient with idle conversation, and decided to cut to the chase. "What numbers did you get?" When no one responded, she motioned to the large bracelet she was wearing. "I'm 5."

The other eight checked their wrists. "7," called Captain Rodgers.

"2." Tony.

"8." Dr. Banner.

"1." Widow.

"6." Fury.

"3." Hawkeye.

"4." Thor.

The only number left was 9, and only one person it could be. Akane pointed at Loki. "You're 9, then?" He nodded. "Check your pockets." He looked confused, but complied, and reached into his green and gold outfit. His eyes widened in surprise as he touched something, and produced a knife.

"How did you know that was there?" he asked Akane, shocked.

"Like you didn't know! How did you get that in here, Zero took _everything!_" This burst of outrage was from Widow. Her eyes narrowed. "Unless you're this Zero person."

The Avengers erupted into arguments, and the only ones not yelling their personal opinions were Akane, Loki, Fury, and Dr. Banner, who looked decidedly ill.

"STOP IT!" Akane had to shout to be heard. The Avengers stopped yelling at each other and looked at her expectantly, which surprised Akane greatly. "Either 1 or 9 always has a knife, and it didn't look like Widow found one earlier. Last time, they used it to make us help them open a door, and then they died, which is why I needed to see where it was. So, please stop freaking out, it would probably be best if Dr. Banner doesn't lose it over such a little thing. It's gonna get a lot worse." She took the knife from Loki and tossed it into the water that had filled the hallway as far as ground level of the ballroom.

Widow looked skeptical at first, but she turned sheepish by the time Akane finished talking. "Sorry," she muttered to no on in particular.

"What do you mean 'they died'?" Tony asked Akane.

"Exactly that. He went throughout a numbered door without the people who helped open it, and couldn't use the deactivation device." Akane looked at him like her meaning should be obvious.

Tony pointed to the 4 and 5 door. "Like those?"

Akane nodded. "The 5." This caught everyone's attention, but instead of explaining, she sat on the marble steps again and pulled out her iPod. She popped her earphones in and flicked on another Maroon 5 song. "Zero should come on the speaker any minute now," she said disinterestedly, and a bit too loud, bobbing her head slightly to the hypnotic beat.

Clint tugged on the earphones, causing them to fall out.

"Hey!" Akane glared at him. "What was that for?"

"I thought Widow said Zero took everything," he half- stated, half- asked.

Akane shrugged. "Sometimes he leaves stuff, like the knife, and the note Snake had..." She trailed off, and a funny expression crossed her face. She flicked through the songs on her iPod, and almost dropped it. One was not a song she had ever heard of, or probably even a song. The album art was a picture of the gas masked person, and it was labeled F:025. _From 0 to 5,_ she thought, and shakily put her earphones back on.

A familiar staticky, grating voice filled her ears. "Hello, Akane. Welcome back. By now I would assume I don't have to explain the rules to you, but so you know, I won't explain them on the speaker this time, that will be up to you." Akane fought the urge to groan. This new group didn't look like they would react well to the rules of the Nonary Game, and she _really_ hated being the bearer of bad news.

"Remember, the bracelets control everything, and if you follow the rules you will live, assuming the other players don't kill you.

"The rules are simple, don't take the bracelets off, find the door with a 9 to escape, you have nine hours before the water rises, etcetera, etcetera, bracelets fall off when you leave the building or die.

"You know the whole thing with the digital roots and whatnot, open numbered doors by touching the REDs by the door, but only with people whose numbers have a digital root of the number on that door. It's still three to five people only through a numbered door, they shut after nine seconds, make sure you get to a DEAD, looks like a gray RED, within ninety seconds of passing through a numbered door, _very_ important.

"You should probably also know that I'm aware that you and your brother set up the last Nonary Games. You might want to keep that to yourself, though." Akane felt her heart pound, and adrenaline course through her system, setting her on edge. Someone knew her secrets, and they had found her.

"This isn't punishment, I just want to see you use that gift of yours. The Games are quite easy if you use it, and try to keep the fighting to a minimum. Might be sort of difficult with this bunch, sorry, but I'm sure you'll manage somehow."

The voice cut off, and with a trembling hand, Akane pulled the earphones out and played it on full volume so everyone could hear. She paused it before Zero announced her true involvement in the last Nonary Games.

Akane slipped the iPod back in her pocket, or at least, tried to. Her hands were still shaking, so it fell and hit the floor. Amazingly, it wasn't broken, but she had set it so that the music would pause or play when she shook it, and the message picked up where she had stopped it. She bit the inside of her lip and picked up the iPod as the message ended and the next song began to play, well aware of eight sets of eyes fixed on her.

"You have about thirty seconds to explain that last part." Fury was telling, not asking, and his name seemed quite accurate to Akane at that moment.

She looked down, avoiding meeting any eyes. "Yeah, I guess an explanation is in order. Before you all attack me, you should know that I _didn't_ survive the first Nonary Games. Or, I wouldn't have if we hadn't set up the second, because I got the information to escape the first from the events of the second. That's my 'gift,' I can use morphic fields to influence other people's decisions, and get information from them.

"I swear I'm not crazy, this is actually rather common, but most people who can are either a receiver or a transmitter, and most are a lot weaker, so they don't always know it. Also, the receivers only get information from the present or from past memories. But for some reason, the morphic fields flow information backwards in the time stream to me. Yes, I know it's a paradox, and thinking about it makes me seriously need Advil, but the point is I get to see all of the various outcomes of these Games, and I pretty much drive myself insane. Believe me, I'm not Zero, at least not this time. I wouldn't put myself through this torture again." Her voice rose in pitch as she spoke, and she fought to keep down the tears that were threatening to spill.

Even so, Akane couldn't help but notice Loki flinch at her second to last word. _Of course, he did try to take over the Earth,_ Akane reminded herself. _Maybe such words should be used with greater caution._

But much to her surprise, Loki draped an arm around her in a remarkably poor attempt at a hug and spoke gently. "We believe you, Akane."

Widow opened her mouth to protest, but Loki shot her a glare that clearly meant _shut up_. "If what Zero said is true, then we have a little over eight and a half hours to get out of here. We need to move, and we need to not fight while we do it. So unless there are any objections, we should split up and open the doors now."

Akane nodded, and pulled away. She took a deep breath to calm herself. Spilling her darkest secrets hadn't been as bad as she'd thought, and no one really seemed to think she was a nut job, so she spoke with more confidence than she had a moment before.

"We need to split into two groups, and the numbers need to make digital roots of 5 and 4." She thought about it for a second. "Digital roots are sort of hard to explain, but the number 9 doesn't affect what the end result is, so I guess, find whoever has the number that adds to yours to equal 9. You really need to keep an eye on that person too, since you can't get through the 9 door without them."

They thought about that for a moment. "So, I'm with Dr. Banner, right? And Tony and the Captain are a team?"

Akane nodded at Widow. "Yes, and Hawkeye's with Fury, Loki's by himself, and I would be with Thor, but to make the digital roots of 4 and 5, we have to split up for the first set of doors." A thought occurred to her. _I've already been here, it's totally normal for me to know what puzzles are through the doors!_ "First, who reads hexidecimal?"

Tony's hand went up, but everyone else just stared at her. "Ok, you need to go through the 4 door with Thor and the Captain. Well, you don't have to, there's a key come to think of it, but it would be quicker if you could just read the note. I've got the solutions to the puzzles for door 5, but someone in the group for door 4 should probably be able to be able to make a dry ice bomb, just in case the door to the freezer gets iced shut again." She looked around. "You'd know how to make one, right?" she asked Dr. Banner.

He nodded. "Yep. So that would be me and Widow with Tony, Steve, and Thor?" Dr. Banner didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "That's five, so Akane, Hawkeye, Fury, and Loki would have to take door 5." No one had any arguments to this arrangement that they voiced, so they split into their groups and stood by their assigned doors.

Something nagged at Akane, like she'd forgotten some small detail. But what was it? Zero had said everything she had said last time, and more. Maybe it was something he didn't say that bothered her...?

"Oh, wow, I am a complete idiot," Akane muttered, face palming. "Wait, don't go just yet," she started. "There are two doors with a 9, it's completely possible for everyone to escape. I mean it, no fighting, that's really the only dangerous part of the game. Well, unless you break the rules... Other than that, if we work together and don't fight, it'll be a cake walk!"

Akane wished that she sounded half as optimistic as she tried to sound. "Ok, sorry, we can go now," and before she could change her mind and go on a rant again slammed her hand on the RED. An asterisk appeared on the screen, and Loki, Fury, and Hawkeye followed her lead. Akane pulled the lever, and stepped back as the doors swung open.

Loki started through the doors, with Akane following closely. Before she could step through, however, a rough hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the door.

"Hey!" she yelled, alarmed. She turned to see that it was Clint. Fury stood by, not restraining her, but making no move to prevent Clint from doing so.

Akane didn't understand. "Come on, all four of us need to go through." She yanked her hand away from Clint and turned back, in time to see the door close, trapping Loki inside. The RED's screen flashed, and the words IN USE appeared.

Thor and Akane ran to the 5 door. "Brother, are you alright?!" Thor yelled through the door, clearly worried.

Akane didn't give him time to answer, instead firing off a different question. "Loki, is there a skull symbol on your bracelet?" She knew the answer, but found herself hoping that it would be wrong. The rest of the Avengers just watched, unsure of whether they should be attacking Hawkeye, or being ready to prevent Thor from doing so.

"Yes," came a muffled, but obviously scared, reply. "What does that mean?"

Akane fought the overwhelming urge to hyperventilate. She was petrified of this place for a reason, and this was it. But she forced herself to calm down, and spoke loudly to be heard through the metal door. "It means that you need to find the deactivation device. It looks just like the RED we used to open the door but it's gray."

There was no response for a moment. Then, Loki began yelling, panicked, but nearly inaudible. "I found... Right by the door... Skull didn't go away!"

Akane stepped away from the door and forced herself to ignore Thor talking desperately to his brother. Instead, she whirled around to face Hawkeye, with more malice than the Avengers had suspected her to possess evident across her face.

"Why did you do that?" Akane asked the question calmly, but it was apparent that she was furious.

Clint shook his head. "Sorry for what this looks like Akane, but you don't understand. The guy's dangerous, he'd kill all of us as soon as he possibly could."

Akane just stared at him, the flaws in his logic seemingly too obvious to even point out. She briefly wondered if he was intentionally being stupid, but then realized that he truly believed what he was saying.

She looked him dead in the eye, while silently wondering why she was bothering to do so. "Yeah, super villain, I heard. And yet oddly enough, in a room full of people who are supposed to _help people,_ he's the only one who has actually been _nice_ to me."

If Akane intended to say more, she was cut off by Thor, who had begun pounding on the large door. Apparently, Loki had stopped responding to him. Akane glanced at the RED. The words were gone, replaced by the blank screen. She moved over to the pad and placed her hand on it, still not entirely sure what she was doing. She stepped back, and gestured towards Tony and Steve.

"I need help to open this," she stated, well aware that if she hadn't been considered crazy before, she was now. But Akane didn't let it bother her. If she didn't like the timeline, well, that would be easy to fix.

Tony and Steve complied after a moment's hesitation, and Akane pulled the lever, signaling the doors to open.

Akane did not see the grisly scene she had come to expect from disobeying the rules of the Nonary Games. Instead, Loki lay on the floor, as though he had simply passed out or fallen asleep. Thor rushed in, not noticing or caring about the skull icon on the bracelet. Akane followed, and the doors slammed shut behind her.

When they did, the shocked Avengers began yelling, but Akane couldn't hear them that well. Nor did she particularly care. Thor knelt by his brother and shook him gently, as though expecting him to wake up. Akane did her best to ignore them and picked up the 9 bracelet.

She turned it over, and saw a pair of hypodermic needles retract into the device. _So we're dealing with poison this time? Not exactly relevant information, but definitely not useless either._

Akane was woken from her thoughts by a heavy sob. She looked at Thor and realized the large man was crying. She tried to tune him out, but found it impossible. So she tapped him gently on the shoulder and spoke even though she didn't get any sort of response.

"Hey, listen, I know this sounds absolutely crazy, but I'm going to tell you anyways because I seriously doubt that you'll remember. This isn't over yet, in fact, the Games haven't even begun, because I can start it over. It's like, a reset button. This won't have happened, and with any sort of luck, never will."

He stared dejectedly at her, heartbreak and disbelief in his eyes. But, he stopped sobbing, and that was enough for Akane to slip off into her own mind, and make sure that a slightly younger Akane knew what she had been through. She felt a small poke from her bracelet, and realized that the ninety seconds were up, but it didn't matter. The world dissolved into small shards of light, and then there was total darkness.

Akane took a shuddering breath and opened her eyes. Her hand was hovering over the surface of the RED, and she drew it back sharply. She turned around, and was pleased to see all eight of her new teammates. "Uh, you know, I actually forgot how to do the musical part in this one. Anyone else have an ear for tones?"

Natasha spoke up hesitantly, seeming slightly confused at Akane's quick change of mind, but playing along. "I learned the piano to infiltrate Broadway once."

Akane jumped on the opportunity. "That's perfect! You and Thor can switch with me and Loki! The numbers will still work perfectly." She linked arms with Loki, who appeared just as confused as Widow, and basically dragged him to the 4 door. _Is it just me, or is his skin about twenty degrees below zero? _she wondered.

Natasha and Thor were surprised by this sudden change in Akane's behavior, but didn't question it, and switched to stand by the 5 door. Akane checked the teams over. Clint didn't pose a threat to Thor, Widow, or Fury, and likewise none of them had any reason to harm him, as Thor wouldn't remember the events that Akane had to constantly remind herself never took place.

And surely they wouldn't have any problems on her team. She would be there, and could prevent fighting. _But,_ Akane grimly reminded herself, _I was on the last team too, and that didn't really make a difference._

She decided to stop freaking herself out and pressed her palm to the RED, seeing Fury do the same out of the corner of her eye. Everyone else followed suit, and the doors swung open at the same time. Nine seconds later they swung shut, leaving the grand ballroom empty and silent as the grave.


	2. Chapter 2

Akane pulled the lever on the DEAD, and the skull icon vanished from the five bracelets. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the 5 reappear. She had been concerned that something might have been wrong with the deactivation devices, but they seemed to be in perfect working order.

They had found the DEAD quite quickly, but Akane's heart was still racing from the adrenaline. The ninety second time limit freaked her out now just as much as it had the first time she had gone through a numbered door.

She looked around, noting that her four companions didn't seem very phased by the life and death sprint, with the possible exception of Dr. Banner, who had squeezed his eyes shut and was counting from one to ten. Tony noticed this as well, and took a couple of steps away from Bruce, just in case.

The hallway they had entered was decorated, albeit simply, with lamps hanging between doorways. There was a large wooden door at the end of the hall, and rows of doors lining the hallway. Akane began systematically trying all the handles, working her way up from the now closed metal door. Steve, Tony, and Loki soon caught on and joined her, while Bruce was left trying not to Hulk out.

He got this under control just in time to see one of the doors Steve tried give way. Not expecting it to open, he leaned too hard and fell onto the floor at the sudden lack of resistance.

Trying not to laugh, the others gathered around to peek curiously into the room, except for Akane, who tried the door directly across the hall. It opened. The rooms were nicer than the ones they had first escaped from, but weren't large enough to be first class. There was a table, a glass cabinet, a bathroom, and a bedroom with a nightstand and a vanity in both rooms. Two pictures hung in each, a black and white ceramic tile art by the door, and a picture of a ship above the bed. The black and white art in the room Steve had fallen into was only partially there, and the one above the bed in Akane's room looked suspiciously like blueprints.

She slipped quietly through the door, and took an immediate turn to the bathroom. Akane pulled a particular tile from the shower wall, and flipped it over to see the black and white pattern on the back. Back in the room, she picked up the box of matches on the table without stopping. Into the bedroom, to the vanity, grab the key, to the picture, take the map. Just as she'd remembered.

Akane turned to go to the other room, and nearly dropped everything when she saw Loki standing behind her. He didn't say anything, but took the map and tile and went to the second room with her.

She set the key and matches on the table. Steve was testing everything in the cabin, discovering that pretty much all of it was locked. Tony, on realizing that Loki held a map, snatched it and began figuring out where they were. Dr. Banner joined him, and they attempted to work out a rough estimate of where they would meet up with the other four, depending on which doors were locked.

Akane was only half listening, and didn't bother to correct them. She struck a match and lit the candle that had been on the table, and took it and the key into the second bedroom. The light was broken, but Akane used the dim light cast by the candle to fit the key into the vanity and open it. She grabbed the tile that was there, and took it and the candle back to the main room of the cabin.

The Captain was looking at the objects in the glass cabinet, one black and white tile, to be exact. He pointed to it when he saw Akane. "This looks like the one in the frame by the door," he said.

She held up the one she had taken from the vanity. "It's the last one," she said, not acting as worried as she usually did. So far everything was how she expected.

"So how do we get it?" he asked.

Akane set the candle down. She watched the candle melt, and let the metal that was beginning to show through the wax speak for her. It didn't take long for enough wax to drip off to expose the key inside, cutting off the flame. Akane inserted it in the lock on the cabinet and twisted. The door clicked open, allowing Akane to take the final tile.

"Time to stop looking at the map now guys, we can leave in just a sec," she said, taking the tile she had given Loki and arranging the three in the frame with the partially complete picture. The frame swung aside to reveal a hole cut into the wall. Akane reached in and took a small key with a symbol on it.

She strode back into the hall, with the other four following closely. The key fit the wooden door at the end, and Bruce couldn't help but notice the Mars symbol on both the key and above the keyhole. The door opened, and Akane made no effort to keep the Mars key in her hurry to get to the next room.

Tony was interested to see that there was a gate blocking their entrance to a large room set up like a hospital that he had expected them to go to. Akane was not surprised at all, and walked right by it. She went straight to another door, leaving the others no choice but to follow.

Back in the ballroom, the grandfather clock struck one. "Eight hours to go," Akane commented to no one in particular.

The room she led them to was a kitchen, with a preparation table, a pantry, stove, oven, walk-in freezer, cabinets for cooking utensils, sink and dishwasher, and a door with a card reader on the other side of the room. Akane made a beeline for the oven.

Loki was the last inside the kitchen, and jumped when the door slammed shut loudly behind him. He tried the handle, but found that it was locked. This didn't appear to bother Akane, who was kneeling and pressing buttons on a keypad next to the oven. A scowl appeared on her face, and she pressed the same sequence of buttons, harder this time.

When nothing happened, Akane swore quietly, then stood and walked to the pantry. She emerged with a large-but-dull butcher's knife and a bottle of vegetable oil, and picked up the grindstone next to the sink. She held the knife and grindstone out to Steve. "Would you mind sharpening this? I have to get something."

He looked at her with surprise. "I thought we were avoiding weapons?" he stated in a confused way that required an answer.

"It's not going to be used as a weapon." With that, she pushed both items into his hands and crossed the kitchen to the walk-in freezer. She seemed to be having trouble moving the bolt, even after pouring the bottle of oil on it, so Loki and Bruce went to help her while Tony looked over stacks of plates and a list next to them.

The bolt gave after a minute of them pulling, and Akane wasted no time pushing the heavy door aside and entering the ice cold room. Dr. Banner didn't want to risk Hulking out in the enclosed space, so he hung back while Loki followed, letting the door swing shut behind him.

Akane turned at the sound of the metal door clanging shut. "You shouldn't close it, the door will freeze to the frame."

"Can't you just do what you did earlier and change the time stream? That was you, wasn't it?"

Her eyes widened. "How did... but... I thought... that never happened!" Akane stumbled over her words.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying you know about it?"

Akane felt like facepalming. "Yeah, ok, that was me. So you... remember... events from other time streams too?"

He nodded. "I can't alter them though." He looked at her curiously. "Earlier, you said you could see alternate time streams, but you made it sound like seeing the future, not changing the past. Comparatively speaking, it's not that crazy at all, we might actually have believed you if you'd explained it differently."

She pretended to glare at him. "You said you _did_ believe me! Well, I guess I wouldn't have believed me, I'm really bad at talking to people, but still!"

He shrugged. "I needed you to stop freaking out. We are on a schedule, after all."

Akane dismissed this concern with a wave of her hand. "Nine hours is a long time, particularly if you already have a good idea about what the solutions to the puzzles are." She scowled. "Except for this one. The code was different, which means we need to be watching out for other changes. This is easy enough to work around, but there are some things that would be, shall we say, less convenient, if they were changed."

Loki nodded his understanding, and was surprised to notice for the first time that Akane was rather pretty. Well, for a Midguardian.

Akane walked to one of the shelves in the freezer and poked through some of things on it absentmindedly. "Loki, can I ask you something?"

He couldn't resist being difficult. "I believe you just did."

Akane rolled her eyes. "Something else?" When she received no reply, she took it as a sign to go on. "Why does Clint not like you?"

Loki fought back a laugh. "You really don't know?" He received a blank stare, and came to the conclusion that, no, she really did not know why the archer in particular hated him.

"Well, for one thing, I tried to take over his planet. For another, I put him under mind control and made him help me do it. I may have also stabbed an agent of SHIELD, which is why most of the Avengers hate me." For some reason, this didn't seem to bother Akane much.

"Oh. Ok." She shivered. "It's really cold. Maybe we should be going now."

"Is it?"

"What?" She gave him an odd look, as it to say _of course it's cold, it's a freezer_.

"Frost giant," he said, pointing to himself.

Akane rolled her eyes. "Of course, I would get myself locked in a freezer with an alien who is perfectly comfortable at sub-zero temperatures. At any rate, _I_ am cold, and would like to leave now."

Loki bristled at the alien comment, but for reasons beyond his capacity of explanation let it slide without correcting her. "Well, you _are_ the expert. How do we do that?"

"Hmmm... I could make that dry ice explosion thing I told Dr. Banner about... Or, I could tell you not to let the door close in the first place, since we both seem to remember things that didn't occur, like this lovely conversation."

Loki nodded. "About that other thing that never happened... thank you." Akane gave him a small smile before disappearing into shards of light.

The bolt slid back sharply. Akane pushed open the heavy door of the freezer. "Don't let it close!" she called over her shoulder, and Loki kept a hand on the door while Akane grabbed a chunk of meat from a shelf. Upon closer inspection, he realized there was a piece of paper sticking out of it.

She returned to the kitchen as quickly as she could, happy to be out of the freezer. Akane put the meat on the stove and grabbed a pair of tongs to keep the paper from burning while she thawed the meat. After a minute or so, it was thawed enough to cut the paper out, and she took the knife from Steve.

She noted with interest that he hadn't sharpened the tip, only the edge further down. _So I'm still not quite trusted. Can't exactly blame him, I wouldn't trust me either._ She cut into the meat and pulled out the scrap of paper embedded in it.

On it was a series of letters separated by addition signs. Akane quickly translated the hexidecimal, then typed the numbers into the keypad by the oven. The oven popped open, and Akane snatched the key card in her usual impatient manner.

She swiped it through the card reader by the second door and it swung open with a _swoosh_. Akane led the way into the large hospital room that could be seen through the gate. A large number of metal cots were arranged in a grid, and Akane sat on one to wait for the others.

There were three doors with large red numbers on them, the 3, 7, and 8. A hallway branched off from the room, ending with a wooden (and not numbered) door.

They didn't keep them waiting long, and within five minutes, Fury came storming out of the casino, managing an impressive glower even with the eye patch. Clint, Natasha, and Thor followed, all considerably less irritated.

"Do you think you could have mentioned that the piano keys were out of order?" he grumbled at Akane.

"Well, you seem to have figured it out alright. We actually just got here ourselves," she replied coolly.

Her casual response annoyed him even more, but he pointed to the three doors after apparently deciding to ignore her indifference. "Are we supposed to go through those next?"

Akane got off of the metal cot. "Yep. Tony should go though door 8, but other than that, the puzzles are fairly straightforward, anyone could solve them. We'll need to split into groups of three. Pick a door, we'll make it work."

Steve, Fury, and Natasha wanted to go through door 3. Tony was assigned to door 8, and Dr. Banner and Akane agreed to go with him. This left Clint, Thor, and Loki to door 7.

Akane thought the archer would explode. "There is no way you are getting me into a locked room with crazy over here!"

"You seemed alright with me earlier," Loki stated, with a bit of sarcasm that only Akane noticed. She decided that it would be best to break up a fight before it started.

"Cool it Clint, the numbers might not even work out so we'll have to switch anyways."

She thought about this. Loki's 9 plus Hawkeye's 3 and Thor's 4 made 16, which had a digital root of 7, just like the door they were trying to go through. _Or maybe we won't be switching._ "Um, actually, your numbers work for the 7 door." Hawkeye groaned.

_But what about the other doors?_ She worked out the digital root of the group going through the 3 door. 1+6+7=14. 1+4=5, which was two over the goal of 3. "But the other groups don't. They would work if Dr. Banner and Widow switched."

They did so, with complaints from Natasha. "Do I _have_ to go with Tony?"

"Yes you do, so stop complaining about it," Akane told her.

Tony flashed his annoying grin at Widow. "Ah, you know I'm awesome." The assassin briefly considered the things she could do to Tony and make it look like an accident, but stopped upon remembering that she had no weapons with her.

"I still don't like being locked in a room with the guy who tried to enslave humanity," Clint grumbled.

Akane's eyebrows furrowed. "Yeah, why did you do that? Totally just curious."

"To rule the world? I kind of thought that was obvious..." Loki was clearly confused by her question.

"Oh, please! That is _the_ _most_ clichéd thing I think I have _ever_ heard. Truth, now!" Akane ordered, reclaiming her seat on a nearby metal cot. She looked expectantly at Loki, who was just as shocked as the other seven. When he made no move to respond, she added, "Please?"

"Shouldn't we be going?" Loki avoided her request.

"No, actually, I think we should wait here for a hour, then we can leave. Might as well fill the time with talking, so talk."

"What's with the wait? Are we expecting someone?" Tony asked sarcastically.

Akane shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not, they should be here within a hour of us finishing the first set of doors if they're coming. In the meantime, make yourselves comfortable."

Since they couldn't move on without Akane, who didn't look like she was going to budge anytime soon, Tony and Natasha joined her on the cots. Slowly, the others sat down as well, reluctant to move on while the three waited.

Loki sat across from Akane, and she kicked his foot. "We're listening," she prompted.

He sighed. "If it was remotely possible that someone would believe me, I'd have already told you."

Akane laughed. "You have _got_ to be kidding! I'm sitting in a room with two aliens, a guy who turns _green_ and huge when he's mad, and did I mention that there's a bridge made out of _rainbows _that connect planets? Oh, yeah, and for some reason, I can change events of the past, and at least one of the people here..." *wink* "...actually remembers the events from other time streams. Seriously, try me."

Loki was still irritated that she insisted he was an alien, but had to concede to her point that not much would qualify as unbelievable anymore, so he decided to explain.

"Thanos was very close to Asgard, he wouldn't have needed to teleport to attack it. That's why he found me so quickly after... Anyway, he was planning an attack, so, I gave him a different target, and a much harder one at that. I really couldn't have asked for anything better than a missile through the wormhole. Well done."

The group was shocked speechless for a moment, but unfortunately for Akane's sanity, only a moment. "You expect us to believe _that_?" Clint asked, furious.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "No."

Thor just stared at his brother. "So, you attacked Earth... to protect Asgard?"

"That's what I just said."

"Yeah, still don't trust you." Clint was adamant that Loki was lying. Natasha and Fury expressed their agreement with the archer.

"Can I just say that blowing up the wormhole was my idea? You're all welcome," Tony added, not wanting to be left out.

A voice from behind him startled the group. "Yes, it was quite brilliant of you, Tony," she said with a genuine yawn, like she had just woken up. "Now, would someone please explain why I'm on a boat?"

Tony whirled around. "Pepper?" In the ballroom, the clock struck two.


	3. Chapter 3

Pepper's hair was sticking up at odd angles, and she blinked a little, still not fully awake. "Hi, Tony. Again, why are we on a boat?"

Akane hurried over to her without giving anyone time to answer. She grabbed Pepper's wrist and turned it so she could see the number on the bracelet.

"9, ok that's one good thing. Problem is, the fact that you showed up means that the new Zero's following my... uh, _edited_... version of the Games, rather than the original." Akane instantly saw the problem that would pose for them later, but didn't voice her concerns. "At any rate, we need to go through the next set of doors, you can pick any group, let's go!"

Akane was ready to move on now, but Pepper was completely lost. "Slow down! First, who are you?"

Tony jumped in at this point. "This is Akane, she's had experience with the Nonary Games before. The rules are kind of hard to explain, just stick with me, I'll explain on the way, we really need to get out of here."

"Um, ok. You know, most people would be totally weirded out to wake up on a ship that looks just like the Titantic. Well, other than the creepy doors with red numbers," Pepper told Tony, expecting an explanation.

"Yeah, it is weird, isn't it? Akane says it's not a ship, but we have... seven, right? Yeah, seven hours to get out of here before it sinks."

This 'explanation' only served to further confuse Pepper. "But if it's not a ship...?"

Natasha made her way to her oldest friend, and pulled her towards the 8 door, cutting off the question. "Apparently it can still sink. It sounds like you're with Tony, which means you're also with me and Akane, at least for now."

Pepper nodded, still in a state of semi-shock, but was going along with the weirdness. "Ok, so, we need open the door, right? How do we do that?" The question was directed towards Akane, who was lost in her own little world at the moment, and was surprised to find that she was being addressed.

"Oh, uh, you put your hand on the Recognition Device," she said, gesturing towards the RED. "Then you have 9 seconds to get through the door, and 90 to find the Deactivation Device. One of the other groups can go through first. How about Fury's team?" Akane was hit by an idea, and wanted to test it, even though the guilt of her next actions was twisting her stomach into knots.

Steve, Bruce, and Fury decided to go along with it, and touched the RED. The 3 door swung open, it's dark interior faintly resembling the gaping mouth of a hungry beast.

Akane quelled her emotional whirlwind just enough to trip Steve while Dr. Banner and Fury went through the door. It swung shut with a crash, sounding much louder than Akane remembered.

Akane looked rather stunned at what she'd done, but spoke up before anyone else could. "Just give it a minute before you freak out. This isn't the first time this has happened today-"

She was cut off by what can only be described as a roar, and a solid sounding punch to the metal door. A large dent appeared from the other side, and Steve and Akane wisely backed away.

Two punches later, large green fingers curled around the ruined door as the Hulk ripped it off it's hinges. He stormed into the room, looking for Akane. His angry green eyes found her, but not before she could see that the bracelet had broken off his wrist without any ill effects to the Hulk. She watched him pick up one of the metal cots to throw at her, only to disappear into shards of light before it was airborne.

The 3 door swung open, and Dr. Banner, Fury, and Steve raced through it, the door slamming shut behind them. Akane turned back to the rest of the group, and put her hand on the RED, nerves to jangled and mind too guilt-ridden to speak. She moved aside to let Tony, Natasha, and Pepper follow suit.

Her eyes met Loki's, who was trying to act like nothing had happened (because it hadn't), and having a little more success than she was. _Are you going to tell?_ her eyes seemed to ask. In response, he touched the RED, and waited for Clint and Thor to do so as well.

The doors swung open, and Akane couldn't resist giving him a look that was a silent plea to not say anything before following her team through.

The 8 door closed behind them, but Akane barely noticed. She swept her gaze around the short hallway they found themselves in, to realize that her team had already found the DEAD, and were waiting for her.

She slammed her palm on it and pulled the lever. The skull icons disappeared, bringing Pepper's attention to the fact that they were there in the first place.

"Why did the bracelets have a skull on them? What would happen if we didn't find this thing? Tony, tell me!" Her voice was calm, Akane had to give her credit, but it was obvious Pepper was scared.

_And she really should be,_ Akane reminded herself. After all, people had died in the Nonary Games before. Akane had killed them.

"If you can't find the DEAD in 90 seconds, you die. That hasn't happened so far." Tony made no effort to be sarcastic with his girlfriend, particularly when she was this stressed out.

"Ok. Ok, I... I can deal with that." Pepper stammered at first, but regained composure quickly. "So, what next Akane?"

She nodded towards the door at the end of the hallway. The only door present, in fact. "Well, this looks like a good place to start," she said, hand already on the knob. She entered the control room briskly, and walked straight through to the open door of the laboratory. A metal gate like the kind used to close shops at the mall crashed to the floor behind her.

"Akane!" Natasha shouted, rather unnecessarily, Akane thought.

"I'm fine, I intended to do that," she reassured her, taking a closer look at her surroundings. The lab included an operating table, a mannequin, a door that opened into the control room, various scientific equipment that Akane still couldn't identify, and of course, the power generator.

She rifled through the equipment until she found the plug, and tossed it through the bars. "You need another plug because this one isn't compatible with the computer. Find it and get the computer powered on," she instructed.

The other three obeyed with minimal arguments, which Akane counted as a success. Pepper found the plug in one of the lockers that were left open, and Tony soon had the computer functioning.

"Seriously, this piece of junk has to be older than I am," Tony complained, while entering code that would allow him to bypass the required password.

"Nothing here is newer than ten years old, and it's based on what would have been on the Titantic." Akane said absently, perched on the operating table. "That was when the first Nonary Games happened."

Natasha took this as an opportunity to find out more about these Games. "You were here for that, right?"

Akane shook her head. "Well, kind of. There actually was a ship for the first time. The first Game was taking place in two different locations, as an experiment. One was here, but my brother and I were on the Gigantic, an exact copy of the ill-fated Titantic. It was converted to a hospital ship, and then purchased by Cradle Pharmaceuticals." Akane's voice caught saying the name, but she pulled herself together and continued.

"Siblings were supposed to be separated, one on the Gigantic and the other here in building Q, but someone messed up. Or Ace and the other three did it on purpose..." Akane trailed off, suddenly uncomfortable with where she'd mistakenly lead the conversation.

Of course, now that she was talking, she would not be allowed to stop. "And, who is Ace?" Natasha asked curiously.

Akane flashed back to ten years ago, when the man's face had appeared at the window, crazier than she had believed a single person capable of being, and told her to do the impossible or die. She smirked slightly. She had done the impossible, and so much more.

"Ace is the only person I've ever been afraid of. I'm not afraid of him now, though. He's currently serving seventy to life for killing his three co-conspirators from the first Nonary Games, while playing out the second. I killed them though." Akane let out a dull laugh. "Revenge was part of what inspired the second Nonary Games, aside from my desire to survive the first. Ace may have swung the ax, but I put it there for him," she finished with a smile that belonged to a skeleton.

"Got it!" Tony exclaimed triumphantly, swiveling his chair to face the women. "What next?"

"Solve the puzzle on the screen, it's really easy," Akane promised. To no one in particular she said, "I've been the one trapped back here all three times, at least in the time streams where we survive. Luckily, the first time one of the other kids was a tech genius, and the second time Lotus broke me out."

"Solved it," Tony called. A row of lockers opened simultaneously, and Akane pointed to them.

"We need a key from there. There should also be a keycard. The three in the control room rumaged through the lockers for the two objects as directed.

Pepper held up the red card first, followed by Natasha with the key. "Great, put the key into a slot in the computer."

Tony did so, and turned it. The power generator behind Akane whirred to life, and she quickly snapped it to max voltage and hurried to the door.

The machine made noises it was definitely not supposed to make, and smoke began pouring out of it. A few jarring rattles later, the machine caught fire and died.

A klaxon alarm sounded, with red lights mounted on the walls flashing. The door sprung open, as well as a door leading out of the control room. Covering her ears, Akane followed the other three out, and made sure to shut the door behind her.

Again, they found themselves in a hallway with only one door. Akane opened it, not surprised in the slightest to see the large hospital room they had just exited.

The other groups took slightly longer to show up, but not much.

Apparently, the group that had gone through the 7 door had gotten into a rather explosive argument and refused to so much as look at each other when they arrived. Akane was almost afraid to ask why. Thor was holding a key that looked very much like the one in Fury's hand, aside from the symbol engraved on it. Steve had a smaller steel key that Akane took before sauntering off to the hall branching away from the hospital room.

The key fit the door at the end, as she'd known it would, and the door opened to the grand ballroom. She heard a few groans behind her as they realized they had made a circle. Akane ignored them, and began laying out the next stage of the game.

"The keycard Pepper has will turn on one of the elevators, which leads to the 6 door. The 9 doors are past it, but you have to take the other elevator up so everyone can get through without going through the 6 door. Also, we need the keycard behind door 1, it's on the top level. Thor has the key to that."

"Uh, Akane? Bit of a problem, if we're taking the second elevator back up, wouldn't that mean we'd have to take the first one down? Isn't it flooded?" Clint didn't sound very concerned. "Did Zero stash SCUBA gear somewhere, 'cause that would be cool."

Akane realized she'd left a detail out of her hurried explanation yet again. "No, the very bottom level of the 'ship' is dry. The level in between is waterproof."

"Back to the keys, you forgot about this one." Fury interrupted, holding out his key. Akane recognized the symbol on it as Earth.

"We don't need it." In truth, the door that key unlocked scared Akane almost as much as Ace did, but she was reluctant to admit it. She hadn't lied though, the key was irrelevant to the game. "We won't all be able to go through those two doors, the numbers won't add up."

She thought about it for a moment. "Thor, Tony, Natasha, and Clint should go through door 1. Pepper, Bruce, and Steve should go through door 6. That leaves me, Loki and Fury out here, but that's ok, because someone really needs to keep an eye out for other unexpected guests. Is that good with everyone?"

"What happened to the 2 door? It's the only one we haven't heard of," Steve asked.

Akane shrugged dismissively. "It's not important." Unfortunately, no one else seemed to think so.

"Why not?"

"Shouldn't we at least check?"

"Why would it be here if it wasn't important?"

A chorus of voices rang out, bombarding Akane.

"Stop!" she screamed when it became overwhelming. "Just trust me, ok? Can we _please_ just _drop it?_" The grandfather clock struck three, startling Akane. She turned to look at it, but quickly realized that something was very wrong. The clock had struck three, but it read six. She watched the second hand closely, and was horrified to see it move twice as fast as it should have.

"Uh, guys, I think our time limit is a bit shorter than we realized," she said nervously. "It looks like we have a hour and a half left." With no further comments about the 2 door the teams ran off to their assigned doors.

Akane sunk onto the steps and leaned against the railing, sitting sideways to look at the clock. She pulled her legs towards her in a ball and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she saw Loki sitting on the steps next to her.

Fury remained standing, and paced in front of the stairs. Akane watched him for a while, and then remembered her purpose of staying out here, and fixed her gaze on the sun door. She watched it so carefully, it was as if she thought it would come to life if she so much as blinked. No one spoke for a good five minutes, which translated to ten on the grandfather clock, until Akane's curiosity and courage built up enough to blurt out, "You're Zero, aren't you?"

"As I believe I have already said, that would be impossible." Loki sounded annoyed that this topic was being brought up again, only to realize that Akane wasn't talking to him.

"I'm so _stupid _for not seeing it earlier," she said, mostly to herself. "This is an experiment, just like the first one. You want to see if I really can alter time, change things, like, the 5 door when you and Clint stopped me from going through!"

Fury stopped pacing to look at her, clearly confused. "That never happened, you switched doors at the last second, remember?"

"Well, obviously, I changed the time stream! But, you would be the most logical person to be Zero. He said in the message that he wanted to see me use my talent. But why would that matter... unless the head of S.H.E.I.L.D. was wondering if I could be a new recruit? And why would I have to work through the Games with the Avengers, unless this is a team compatibility test? Seriously, the only thing I can't figure out is why you would break Loki out of prison to come here, and why you would put your team in danger with these bracelets."

Akane took a breath, but continued quickly, not quite ready to relinquish her soap box speech just yet. "Unless of course, you figured out the thing with the aliens and the teleporting _before_ I made Loki tell us, and this is a compatibility test for both of us. And then the poison thing... it's not deadly, is it? Oh, do _not_ tell me you used the Cradle Pharmaceuticals product!"

She glared indignantly at Fury, who had mastered a better poker face than most statues would ever accomplish. "Something like that. If you're done now, can I ask you why you told everyone there's a key card behind the 1 door?"

She blinked, somewhat taken aback that he would so readily admit to being Zero. "Uh, is there not a key card there?"

He shook his head. "No, it's just a key. The-"

"Sun key," Akane finished. "So the Uranus key card is-"

"The 2 door. Yes."

Akane groaned miserably. "Oh, this is bad, this is really, _really_ bad! We already sent everyone away, we can't wait for them to get back..." She stopped mid-panic, and actually thought about it for a second. "...but our numbers would work..." Her voice sounded more hollow and defeated than it should have, since most people would consider that to be good news.

Fury held up the Earth key. "After you?" She took it with an unsteady hand, and led the way up the beautiful staircase to the door with an Earth symbol above the keyhole and dark memories from a time that never existed. It fit perfectly, despite Akane's subtle hope that it would not, and she opened it to reveal the 2 door.

Remembering that there was no time to waste, Akane quickly slammed her hand on the RED, and motioned that the other two should do the same. She pulled the lever, and the door swung open with an ominous creak.

The rooms beyond were dimly lit and uninviting, but Akane sprinted inside and found the DEAD. In just a few moments, the usual numbers on their bracelets soon replaced the skulls.

They were in what looked like a confinement block. There were three cells and a door labeled by a sign that was missing some letters. Akane entered the first cell, finding exactly what she had expected to see. A chair-less desk in the corner contained a drawer that was bolted shut, a small hard cot that didn't even have a pillow was pushed against an undecorated steel wall, a toilet behind a curtain used an old-fashioned pull string hanging from the ceiling to flush, and a sink sat just below a mirror with large blue circle painted on it.

Akane broke the handle off of the toilet paper holder, and the metal shaft off the pull string. She shoved them together to make a rudimentary screwdriver, and began to work on getting the screws holding the drawer in the desk out when a thought occurred to her.

"Hey, I'm not the only person who knows what to do! You go do the flushing thing," she waved her hand in the general direction Fury had been standing, although she did not look up from the desk. She resisted the urge to laugh at the image of tough-guy Fury standing around pulling a cord to repeatedly flush a toilet, but he must have, because she heard flushing in the other rooms.

Loki and Akane were left alone in the first room, Akane concentrating on keeping the impromptu screwdriver from falling apart while she got the desk free.

"Why would Fury would want me on the team?" Loki asked, startling Akane. "They all hate me."

She shrugged, continuing her work. "People forgive a lot easier than you'd think they would. The person who should have hated me the most for what I did to her during the second Norary Games, Clover, is my best friend now. We go to the mall every weekend. In one of the alternate time streams, Clover ax murdered my brother, me, and probably the rest of the people we put here. But I can't ever be mad at her because she didn't really do that, not to mention I can't get the picture of her being stabbed to death in one of the _other_ time streams out of my head."

She sighed. "This Nonary Game has been extraordinarily tame compared to what the last one put me through. I watched them all die over and over, and I knew I killed them. Not directly, but it was because of me. Of course, I finally messed with Jumpei's decisions enough to lead him to this time stream, where the only people who died were the ones I wanted dead.

"And _then,_ Jumpei had the _nerve_ to ask me out! After everything I did, especially to him, he still treated me like the innocent little girl he knew from elementary school. I said no, of course. I just... couldn't quite live with myself if I let him still care about me."

Loki decide to steer the conversation away from what was getting to be a touchy subject. Unfortunately, the one he picked was not much better. "Why should this other girl, Clover, have hated you so much?"

It was a honest question, but Akane had trouble answering it. "I made her think her older brother was dead. They met up in the end, but still... If I were her, I'd hate me."

Their conversation was fortunately cut off by Fury returning with a tile marked by an E that he set on the desk. Akane had gotten the screws off by now, and pulled the drawer completely away from the desk. Another tile was inside, which Akane scooped up along with the one on the table. She took the drawer to the second room and promptly switched it with the identical one in the desk in that room. This one was not bolted, much to her relief.

There was a clattering sound, and Akane pulled the drawer back out to see another E tile. The only one left was in the pipe system, so she took the drawer handle off and put it on the broken faucet, then sent Loki back to the first room to get the tile that washed up in that sink.

They gathered at the door labeled -m-rg-nc-. Akane slid the E tiles into place to spell 'emergence'. There was a click, and when Akane turned the handle it gave way easily.

The next room was dark, and seemed ten degrees cooler, or perhaps that was just the goosebumps it gave Akane. A glass floor dominated the room, glowing slightly, and a dead shark floated belly-up underneath. On the left wall was an electric chair and its control panel, as well as a control panel for the power in the room.

In a corner was a table with tools covered in rust. Or, at least Akane hoped it was rust. A pipe ran along the right wall with a round section that could be taken off. A door that had to lead to the ballroom was on the other side of the room.

She walked over to the table and selected a wrench that looked mostly clean, and began to take off the loose section of pipe. The screws came off easily, leaving a black hole that looked like something an animal would be living in.

Akane pushed that thought away and reached her hand in. She was past the elbow before her hand touched the bottom. She swept her hand around until her fingertips brushed something plastic and rectangular. Akane grabbed the keycard and pulled it out, delighted to find the Uranus symbol printed on the side.

"Perfect, time to get out of here!" She looked at the dead shark, reading the letters that were cut into its belly. She typed them in order on the control panel for the power, and the room buzzed to life, a stark light radiating from the fluorescent lights overhead.

A female voice spoke from a speaker somewhere above them. "Experiment started. Please seat test subject."

"Wait, what? I thought we were leaving," Loki asked nervously, still hanging around the door they had come from.

"We are. You have to run an experiment to get the doors open," Akane explained, standing by the control panel for the electric chair. The screen was glowing green,and the words 'please seat test subject' were displayed. "Not it!"

"I won't fit the cuffs, and it won't start until they close," Fury reasoned, not-so-discreetly calling attention to his rather large muscles. Akane rolled her eyes.

Loki reluctantly sat in the chair, and jerked in surprise when the cuffs snapped shut around his wrists. "You're sure this will work?" he asked, eyes darting to Akane nervously, looking very much like a deer caught in headlights.

The screen changed to a puzzle, which Akane systematically began working through. She dismissed his concern with a nonchalant wave. "Oh, yeah, don't worry, the chair isn't attached to any form of electricity. If you must know, I was freaking out about this door earlier because the only times anyone's gone though here, everyone ended up dead. This was were Clover ax murdered me and my brother. Jumpei came through here too, with Lotus and Seven, but when he got out, the extra person from door 1 had shot everybody. I bled to death in his arms."

This dreary topic reminded Akane that she'd meant to grill Fury with questions before she'd discovered that he'd misplaced the key card. "Speaking of, can I assume that there is someone in the 1 door this time?"

Fury spoke tersely. "Yes."

Akane sighed, exasperated. "You're gonna have to give me more than that. I get the whole need-to-know basis thing that you usually deal with, but secrets are as dangerous as bullets here. At least give me a name and tell me if they have a bracelet."

"Her name is Jane Foster. She has a 9 bracelet."

Akane's focus wavered slightly from the puzzle. "That's a problem. Eleven people, five to a door, and only two 9 doors... If her bracelet was 8, we could get Dr. Banner's off and have no problem. Well, other than being stuck with a very angry hulk... That might qualify as a problem."

She sensed more than saw Fury's confusion. "Long story?" she amended nervously, but to her relief Fury didn't ask how she knew that.

The screen she was working on switched off with no warning, leaving Akane with a dark screen reflecting her shocked face back at her. "Hey! It's not supposed to do that!" she yelped in surprise.

"Yes, it is." Fury's tone had taken on a dangerous edge. Akane turned her full attention towards him, shocked to see that he'd gotten much closer while she was distracted with the puzzle.

"What are you talking about?" Akane tried to keep her voice level, but a slight tremor crept through regardless.

Fury regarded her coldly. "You were wrong about the purpose of the Games. I'm not looking for another SHEILD agent. I'm trying to get one back."

Realization hit Akane like a train, all the clips she'd gotten from the internet and television snapping into place with things she'd learned just hours before. "Agent Coulson."

Fury nodded slowly. "I was led to believe that you can alter other people's past decisions as well as your own. I need you to make Loki not kill him."

Akane closed her eyes, and bit back the nausea that surfaced from the request that she knew she couldn't fulfill. "I can't," she whispered, just loud enough to be heard.

Fury inched closer, with a glint of cold steel in his one remaining eye. "Why can't you?"

All the courage she'd built up outside, with a friend nearby and able to help her if needed dissipated as the harsh lighting struck Fury's features in a manner that was much too reminiscent of another man, who'd had a different, but equally impossible, request ten years ago.

Akane's first instinct was to hide, to become the young girl she had been, but logic quickly took over. She was not a timid child anymore, she was the woman who could control the time streams now, and she was very, _very_ good at revenge. _As_ _my old friend Ace can certainly attest to_, she mused, the idea bringing a smirk to her lips and temporarily quelling the fear in her heart.

The smirk came through in her voice. "Because, Nicholas Fury, you don't scare me. Ask anyone who worked on the first Nonary Games, I can't change anyone else's actions without me being in legitimate danger. Oh, wait, you can't ask them because I killed them all. That's too bad," she trilled. "And I don't care if you have an ocean of venomous snakes, I can't change anything further than a hour back without the extra factor of epiphany. Oh, and that pesky little fact that I have gotten absolutely no practice between last year and now. Not to mention that what you're asking for would end up being a bit of a paradox. Correct me if I'm wrong, the news was a bit sketchy on this, but didn't you use their anger about this incident to get the Avengers to actually work together in the first place?"

Fury ground his teeth, but refused to let Akane win this argument. "The purpose of playing through the game was to give you more practice. You seemed to handle paradoxes quite well last year after you'd been messing with the time streams for a while. As for the danger and epiphany, I think the final puzzle will do. You should probably know that it is as functional as you remember." With that, Fury pulled a key board that hadn't been there when Akane set up her Nonary Games out from under the control panel and typed in a series of commands.

The handcuffs on the chair sprang open at the same time as the door slid into the wall, revealing the glittering ballroom. Loki moved quickly to stand by Akane, his skin paler than before, and colder. It was all they could do not to run from the room to the inviting golden glow outside.

The others were waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, along with a woman Akane didn't recognize, but assumed must be Jane. Akane had to restrain herself from gliding down the banister to them, well aware of Fury only a few steps behind.

"Hey, I thought you guys were staying here," Clint called up to them. Akane held up the key card and forced a smile, not trusting herself to speak. Fury's threat of the upcoming puzzle sent her shivering with memories of the time streams when she had failed to send the release code to her younger self.

The heat wave felt so real, she could almost smell her hair singe. Akane took in a shuddering breath, although the air was suddenly incredibly hot and dry, like she was breathing in fire. Akane almost staggered the rest of the way down the steps, the memories that couldn't exist hitting her like a freight train. _I_ have _handled paradoxes before, haven't I?_

Her vision blurred and she doubled over. Akane was vaguely aware of someone holding her so she didn't simple collapse. Their hands were freezing to her, and the painful memories evaporated like water thrown on a fire. When she could see straight, she realized that Loki had been the one to catch her. No one else had moved, and everything clicked into place for her.

"You're _all_ in on it," she murmured. The accusation didn't seem to phase the Avengers, who mostly reacted by shrugging and glaring at Fury, presumably for telling her too early. Well, all except Tony.

"In on what?!" he cried.

This all suddenly seemed funny to Akane, who tried, and mostly failed, to avoid laughing deliriously. "You can't set up the Nonary Games by yourself. There always has to be at least two Zeros. Or in this case, eight. Of everyone here, the only person here who doesn't seem to care that I was the last Zero is the only one who didn't already have an idea of just how evil 'Zero' is. That's why in a room full of superheroes, only Loki will actually come within three feet of me."

Tony gaped at his friends. "No, no, this can't be right. They wouldn't just..." His gaze drifted to Natasha, and he stopped mid-sentence. "Pepper, _please_ say you didn't know about this either?"

Pepper blushed a little, but held her ground. "Yeah. Sorry..."

The red in Tony's face rivaled that of his suit. "You _all_ knew about these Games beforehand, and you _didn't tell me? Why?_"

Dr. Banner smirked. "We didn't tell you because you can't keep a secret, Mr. I-give-the-media-my-home-address."

Clint cut in at this point. "Also, you are really fun to mess with. You were scared stiff this whole time!"

Tony scowled at him. "Was not."

A cross between a snort and a strangled laugh came from Steve. "_Sure_. The kitchen had a walk-in freezer, and I did not get one 'Capsicle' joke from you."

Tony started to protest, but was cut of by the grandfather clock striking four. The face of the clock read eight, which meant there was only a half hour until nine. "We really need to go now," Akane said, edging towards the elevators.

"But what about the sun door? We got the key," Jane said, holding it up.

"Well you tell me, is there anything in there?" Akane's impatient manner returned, and she was quite ready to move on.

Jane's face fell. "No, but I thought if Fury already told you why we're here, then maybe..."

Akane bit the inside of her lip. The faces she saw ranged from mildly hopeful, to smoldering anger, to perplexed (Tony).

"No. I'm sorry." She hit the call button for the elevator without another word and stepped inside. The elevator was small, which fortunately for Akane's sanity meant that only Loki and Jane managed to slip inside.

The elevator was much slower than she remembered, or maybe that was just nerves. It made creaking noises that set her even more on edge, and begged the question, _Fury did run a maintenance check when he set this up, right? The last thing we need now is to get stuck._

"Why not?" Akane nearly jumped out of her skin, surprised by how loud the other woman's voice was in the elevator. She didn't need to ask what she meant.

"It's... It's more complicated than whatever Fury told you I could do. Heck, I don't even know how this stuff really works, I just know that I can occasionally alter decisions, mostly mine, that have already been made. And, I don't know, there was just something about Fury. It was like Ace all over again. Ace with an eyepatch," Akane finished with a sigh.

The doors clicked open with a ding, but Jane moved in front of them, blocking Loki and Akane's exit. "They were friends, you know. Coulson and Fury." She glared pointedly at Loki.

"Do you really think the Chitauri would have trusted me if I had left without doing damage? Agents of SHIELD aren't the only ones willing to go to great lengths to protect their planet." He brushed past her, Akane following, although with an apologetic expression.

She quickly corrected herself though. _I have nothing to be sorry for. This isn't my business, and Fury will get what he wants regardless._ The elevator doors slid shut, and chugged back to the ballroom for the next set of people.

The familiar door that reminded Akane of a casino had been left ajar, so she pushed through it to see the pristine room with church style benches and a carpet for the bride. Where the alter should have been was a coffin, and behind that the 9 door. Akane walked further into the room and turned around to see the second 9 door next to the one they had come from. She let out a sigh of relief that she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

The three stood just inside the room in awkward silence, Jane and Loki were obviously still mad, but they were quiet, there being nothing left to say. Akane was just trying (and failing horribly) to calm herself about what she knew came next.

She could have hugged Steve, Clint, and Natasha when they arrived and broke the tension. Jane and Loki clearly had known each other before, if the icy glares Jane kept shooting him were any indicator.

Instead, Akane resumed her down-to-brass-tacks attitude that had spared her from most conversation during the Game. "What's in the coffin this time? Deadly virus that will wipe out the world and force me to alter the decision to open it?"

Her sarcasm was mostly ignored, but Steve did answer. "It's empty. You left it here last time." He paused, wanting to ask a question but not quite sure how. "I heard that you put someone in it? It's just a rumor, and you've seemed nice enough so far, but still... I... Uh, did you?"

Akane leaned against the black and white diamond wall, half-smirking, half-scowling. It was an odd expression on anyone, and especially ill-suited to Akane's innocent looking face. "Yeah. His name was Light, but we called him Snake. I killed a man and told Light's sister it was him. You say I'm 'nice enough,' well, so's a serial killer before he knifes you. I'm _not_ one of the good guys, Steve. I'm _Zero_, the only one that ever ended up killing someone. I think your boss is a bit slow comprehending that."

Clint chuckled. "Not a good guy, huh? Don't worry, you're in good company. You know Natasha and I are assassins, right? And Tony used to manufacture weapons? Also, _no one_ likes Fury. He lies. A lot. It's kind of a rule that you don't lie to your team, but we tolerate it because approximately ten times out of ten he knows exactly what he's doing. We wouldn't be here if he gets things wrong."

Akane said nothing, biting the inside of her lip until it bled. The elevator dinged, and Fury, Tony and Pepper came out.

"Uh, next one might be a while, Thor's having trouble getting Dr. B in the elevator," Tony announced.

"He'd better hurry, we don't have a lot of time left," Akane grumbled. "Speaking of, we should discuss teams now so we can go as soon as they get down here. Like I was saying earlier," she paused to glare briefly at Fury, "there are eleven of us and two doors. So, what was the plan for this stage of the game?" She continued glaring at Fury, who infuriated her further by not providing a solution.

"You tell me. I'd planned on having ditched Loki by this point. The water is completely real, in case you were wondering." Akane bit back a groan. This was another sick test, just to see what she'd do. _Or maybe he's telling the truth. _Akane wasn't sure which theory she liked least.

"I'll stay." Akane made a show of rolling her eyes at Steve. She was actually quite impressed by his selflessness, but certainly not about to show it.

"Yeah, _that_ would work, just as long as Tony's ok with staying too, and I think Pepper might have something to say about that. The numbers won't work if anyone with a bracelet other than 9 stays. We'd have to leave at least two people." Akane immediately regretted the words. She knew the logical choice for everyone, since it looked like it would come down to one, but she couldn't let that happen.

Natasha's voice was quiet, but you could hear a pin drop after Akane's declaration, so she was heard by all. "So, we basically have to decide whether Pepper, Jane, or Loki drowns fifteen minutes from now?"

"More or less. Everyone else should be able to get out by then, but I don't know if there's a way to turn off the Game from the outside. I didn't put one in." A brief glimmer of hope shone in Akane's eyes. "Did you?" Fury shook his head no, and Akane swallowed, suddenly dizzy. She leaned into Loki, truly scared for the first time since she'd woken up in the cabin. But before, no one had been talking like Lotus.

The elevator buzzed for the last time, and Thor and a decidedly ill-looking Dr. Banner emerged. "Now, that wasn't that hard, was it?" Tony joked. Bruce's eye twitched, which Akane took to mean yes, yes it was that bad.

"So, who's gonna tell them?" Clint asked, looking at the other downcast faces in the room. Everyone knew the reaction was going to be explosive.

"Thank you for volunteering," Fury replied, and Clint grimaced, realizing that he'd set himself up for that.

"Tell us what?" Dr. Banner had noticed their worried expressions and sounded nervous.

"Fury hadn't planned on everyone getting here. We have to decide if we're leaving Pepper, Jane, or Loki. In fifteen, or maybe thirteen, minutes, this place is going to fill up with water."

"No! We're not leaving anyone!" Thor sounded as outraged and hopeless as Akane felt, having reached the same conclusion as to who would inevitably be left. "Why didn't you tell us of this?" he thundered, rounding on Fury.

Fury, to his credit, didn't so much as flinch. "The plan was to take Loki out of the game with the same tranquilizer Clint uses on the Hulk, in a less concentrated dose. It's loaded in the bracelets. Then Akane would know that this was serious and cooperate."

Akane wanted to protest that she had been cooperating just fine, thank you very much, but she wasn't given the chance.

"So you would have just left my brother there to drown?" Thor was clearly debating the merits of ripping off Fury's head. "I'd rather stay myself."

"That actually might work." Akane was much quieter than Thor, but she captured the attention of everyone in the room. "4," she pointed to Thor's bracelet, "and 5." She pointed to her own. "That makes 9."

The temperature of the room dropped about twenty degrees. "You are _not_ going to stay because of me," Loki practically ordered.

"Hey, guys? Helllllooooo?" Pepper stepped forward. "Which part of the bracelet are the needles on?"

"The top, right under the screen. Why?" Akane answered.

"Heh. Watch this." Pepper's left hand glowed a deep orange, and the plastic bracelet began to melt. She grabbed the top of it with her free, non-glowing hand and pulled it off just as the needles popped out. "Problem solved," she said in a self-approving manner that she must have learned from Tony while she finished pulling strands of molten plastic off her hand.

Akane had to stop for a second to take in what her eyes saw but brain refused to accept. But for only a second. _Well, I've certainly seen crazier._ "That is totally freaking _awesome_. Time to go?"

Consent was unanimous, and they scrambled to the 9 doors. Tony, Natasha, Dr. Banner, Steve, Loki, and Pepper decided to go through the door on the other side of the coffin, while Clint, Thor, Fury, Akane, and Jane went through the one that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Akane and Loki hadn't wanted to spilt up, but she promised that it would only be a few minutes.

They went through the doors quickly, and found the Deactivation Device with no trouble. Akane found herself in a familiar hallway, a friendly hallway, one that meant the Game was almost over. The was a door on the left going to the library, and a wall blocking them from going further down the hall. Akane took the obvious route to the library.

It was an impressive library, with mountains of books as far as could be seen, and a spiral wrought-iron staircase leading below, promising even more.

Akane ran down the stairs, acutely aware of the now-pressing time limit. She didn't stop to marvel at the sheer number of books present, but found a book labeled SHELDRAKE-5 and yanked it of the shelf. There was a grinding sound above her, and she dashed back up the stairs as Clint called down, "One of the bookshelves is moving!"

"I know," she responded, reaching the top out of breath. One of the shelves had indeed moved aside, revealing a set of double doors protected by an electronic lock. Fury was already typing in the code that would allow them to enter the workshop. He yanked open the door on the right and disappeared into the workshop. Akane and the others followed quickly.

Inside was an incredibly messy workshop. Spare parts and almost finished puzzles litered the table and floor. Fury was holding a nautical map and working on a puzzle Akane knew would give them a steering wheel emblem. He looked up briefly. "Come on, I know all four of you know how to solve these. Don't just stand there."

Akane picked up a pink sheet detailing how to spell in morse code and wandered over to the machine that belonged in the old ship, the telegram. She heard things being shoved around behind her, which she presumed to mean that the other three were trying to get to the computer with the cross emblem, or the box with the coffin emblem.

She ignored them, and worked on her own puzzle, carefully keying in the code to spell 'ICE.' There was a click, and a code emblem popped out from a nearby keyboard. She picked it up, and made her way to the computer with the indentations above the screen.

Fury, Thor, and Jane were already there, Fury holding the steering wheel emblem, and Jane with the coffin emblem. Clint climbed over loosely stacked machine parts, holding the cross emblem. Akane clicked the code emblem into the computer, and moved aside to let the others do the same. Fury entered the solution to the final puzzle, and Akane was the first out when a door hidden by spare equipment clicked open. There was interesting secrets from the first two Games to be discovered in the workshop, but this was not the time.

They were greeted by yet another closed door upon exiting. This one had a Uranus symbol next to a card reader. Akane swiped the keycard she'd gotten from the 2 door, and the door opened to reveal their six companions outside the room that was in itself the final puzzle.

"You didn't say there was an incinerator!" Tony yelled when he saw them. Behind him, Pepper sighed half-heartedly. Apparently this topic had dominated the conversation of the last few minutes. "I am not going in there."

Akane pushed open the heavy flame-resistant door. "Yes you are, or you're going to stay out here and wait the what? Five minutes? Hope you're a good swimmer." With more than a little hesitation, Tony followed her into the incinerator, everyone else trailing behind. The door clicked shut, and the same female voice from the experiment room came over the speakers.

"Incineration in twenty minutes." The voice was calmer than Akane thought should have been, given the circumstance. There were two doors other than the one they had come from, one unmarked, and the other with what appeared to be a 9.

"Ok, Fury, you have thirty seconds to clear out. Just leave me with numbers that add to 8. It is still a little q, not 9, right?" she asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Yes. How did you..."

Akane cut him off. "The numbers of the people who weren't in on it. I'm 5, Tony's 2. Natasha's the best at fighting without weapons if Fox News was accurate at all, and she's 1. The plan was for her to make sure we stayed, right? That's 8, and Q in hexidecimal has a digital root of 8, so we could all get out after I solve the suduko puzzle and the RED is restored to read the braclets. Did I get everything?"

Fury nodded, surprised at how quickly she'd caught on to the plan. "Yeah. One door won't monitor who goes through it, but it will only open once."

To everyone's surprise, Loki spoke up. "So everyone except the people needed to open the last door should leave. It my fault we're here, I'll stay with Akane."

"But to open the door, you need one more person, the person with the 3 bracelet. I'll stay too," Clint added.

Water pounded against the wall, making everyone jump. "Incineration in fifteen minutes," the female voice spoke. Fury opened the door to the exit, and everyone who wasn't staying filed out. Akane had to close her eyes until the door shut to keep herself from making a break for it. She couldn't leave, not yet. And anyways, she wouldn't leave Clint and Loki.

After everyone had left, the last puzzle rose from the floor. It was just a screen with a suduko puzzle, but it filled Akane with apprehension. She hadn't been able to do this ten years ago. Then again, her brother had identified the type of puzzle it was, and had spent the next nine years drilling her in how to solve them, just in case. She could do this.

Akane began filling in the most obvious numbers missing from the screen, but she was relying heavily on logic, not giving epiphany any chance to suggest a solution. _If I don't fix this now, something similar will happen again... and again... Let's just get it over with._

Water lapping at her ankles gave Akane sufficient motivation to work faster. The room must not have been as airtight as she had supposed. The voice had announced the ten minute point before she had the first epiphany. She'd been stuck, scanning the screen for a possible move, and realized one was right under her nose. That one led to more moves, and the light in the room gradually broke into shards.

Akane blinked, trying to see the screen through the crystal-like haze in the air. She briefly wondered if anyone else could see it, but the water had risen, and she decided not to worry about it.

"Incineration in five minutes." Akane could barely see the screen, but she knew she was more than five minutes away. Still, she kept working, slowly pulling the puzzle apart. But it wasn't nearly fast enough, and the level of epiphany was still too low.

"One minute remaining." Akane stared at the screen. There were too many numbers to fill in. She wasn't going to make it. The water had risen while she was distracted. She abandoned the puzzle, staring at the water instead. "Thirty seconds." The idea was was random, spontaneous, and utterly crazy. It was the perfect epiphany. "Ten, nine, eight..."

"Dive under the water!" Akane yelled, taking her own advice. If she curled into a ball the water was well over her head. The shards of light disappeared, this final epiphany being enough to do what Akane wanted, but the room remained. The female voice continued the countdown, but Akane could barely hear it through the water.

"...ree, oo, un." Above her, the world exploded in a fiery rage of orange and red. But below the water, everything was calm. Akane could see the other two under the water as well, fire dancing just above the surface, but not breaking it.

Just when Akane thought she would pass out if she stayed under any longer, the flames stopped, and she quickly rose to the surface, gasping for air. It was almost nonexistent, and the air that was there was heavy with water vapor, but Akane had never been so glad just to breath.

She sloshed through the water to the Q door and pressed her hand on the RED, which had amazingly not been damaged. An asterisk appeared on the screen, much to Akane's relief. Clint and Loki helped her open the door, and the water pushed them out into the hall as the vacuum of the incinerator sucked them back in with the air. It was sweeter than Akane had ever tasted, but she stayed focused on finding the DEAD instead of appreciating it.

She found it by a set of spiral stairs, and they were soon climbing them, looking for the other eight people. Akane touched her hair, shocked to find it was much shorter than before. She hadn't tied it down, and it had floated to the surface while she was under the water. The singed ends were only an inch from her head in the back. That was much to close of a call.

The stairs led to the roof of building Q, and Akane had to cover her eyes at first from the bright Nevada sun. When she could see again, the view took her breath away. The desert was the same as she remembered, large, hot, and full of sand, but on the desert next to building Q was a giant aircraft. She vaguely remembered a news article on Yahoo about SHIELD's helicarrier, and assumed that this must be it.

The bracelets clattered to the ground, joining several more. The other eight people were already making their way towards the helicarrier. It didn't take long to spot the ladder on the side of the building, and soon they were were racing after them.

A few minutes of running in the desert had completely dried off the water from the incinerator by the time they reached the shadow under the helicarrier, out of breath, but happy to have escaped. Akane noticed a Jeep parked nearby, and smiled to herself.

"Clint!" Natasha hugged the archer when she saw him, but then pulled away, embarrassed. "We waited, but... we heard the incinerator go off, so..." She hugged him again.

"Yeah, Akane had the idea to hide under the water. Can't believe it worked, but it did." Clint seemed surprised that Natasha was hugging him, but after a moment he hugged her back. "It's over."

"Is it?" Fury asked Akane.

"Why are you asking _me_? I think he might have a better answer for you," she said, pointing behind Fury. A man was exiting the helicarrier, confused, but clearly alive.

"Uh, what is going on here? And where _is_ here?" All of the Avengers turned toward the voice.

"Phil! You're back!" Pepper exclaimed happily. Everyone ran to see their old friend, except Akane, Fury, and Loki. She gave Fury an odd look.

"You're not going to join the happy reunion? I did what you wanted."

Fury didn't respond to her question. "You weren't wrong when you said this was a team compatibility test. It wasn't the primary goal, but it would never hurt to have two more allies."

"Ok..." Akane narrowed her eyes. "You knew Pepper could get her bracelet off, didn't you? You wanted to see what we'd do in the meantime."

"Yes."

"And the doors. You used my receiver ability to make sure we were the three left outside so we could go through the 2 door, right?"

"Yes. That was why Pepper and Jane were there, we needed the extra influence on what you picked."

"That's mean."

"I know. Are you coming or not?"

Akane looked at Loki, just to confirm that they were thinking the same thing. "No," they said at the same time.

"Fine. You can take the Jeep, I'm sure you remember how to get out of the desert. We won't bother you again." He gave Akane a set of keys, and a card with a phone number on it. "If you change your mind, let me know."

She ripped up the card. "If I change my mind, you won't give me the card in the first place. Later!" She pulled Loki towards the Jeep, and they got in. Akane started the car, pleased to find that Maroon 5 was on the radio. She turned up the air conditioning to high. "Where to?" she yelled over the radio and AC.

"You tell me," he yelled back.

She thought for a minute. "It's not that far to Vegas."

"Let's go." Akane agreed, and took the car from zero to sixty in half the time the manufacturer recommended. _Look's like even the bad guys get a happy ending this time_, she thought with a grin.


End file.
